San Diego!

I decided that I deserved a little break from life and decided to take a Saturday (April 14th) off.  I slept in and woke up without my alarm and then headed down to San Diego.  

First, I went to the beautiful San Diego Temple. 

 Isn't it breathtaking!

After I got out of the Temple, I did a quick wardrobe change (I SO did not want to spend my entire day in a skirt) and went to Old Town.

 I just browsed around for awhile, at my leisure, and got a couple of souvenirs.  I also took a break and had a delicious root beer float.  Yum!

 After leaving Old Town, I stopped in at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.

Then, walked across the street to the Victorian Village Heritage Park.

After that, I went to Phil's BBQ, where I got to-go meals for my parents and me.  If you haven't been to Phil's, it's a must-do!  So delicious!  I called in my order so I didn't have to wait in line for an hour and a half.    It worked out pretty well.  : )  It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to go!

"Go For It!" and Other Madness!

At work, the kids are getting ready to take the big state test and one of the things we have to do is take down all posters and decor in the classroom that have any curricular information on them.  When I did that, my classroom looked completely sterile and, quite frankly, it was awful!  It made me uncomfortable and the kids made comments about how boring the room looked.  So, I went to the staff lounge and got some butcher paper to make encouraging banners in bright colors that would liven up the room, without giving them any hints on that ridiculous test.  I went over to Sara's house, and we ordered pizza while we painted.  It was actually alot of fun!  I am seriously artistically challenged and so I thought that it would be agonizing, but it was nice to just paint for awhile, which I haven't done in ages.  Plus, things are always more fun when you do them with friends.  : )

They definitely livened up a very dull classroom! 

Going Egging...Easter Style!

The weekend before Easter, I babysat my nephews and decided that we were in need of a little adventure.  So, I did what any responsible adult would do and took them egging!  Well...it's not quite what you think  ; )   I printed some Easter egg coloring pages off of the Internet and had the boys color them.  They actually did a really great job and and even Jonathan got in on the fun.

While they were coloring, we hung out in my room and watched the Easter Charlie Brown movie.

Then, we went to Target to get a few snacks for the people we were egging.  We put a few snack bags together and then went out for our adventure.  Sadly, Aaron was feeling kinda sick and fell asleep by the time we were ready to go out and David and Melissa had just gotten back, so they kept Jonathan, who was also feeling a bit under the weather.

So, Joey, Cy, and I went out.  Beforehand, I had arranged a couple of places to "visit".  Usually, this type of thing is a surprise and you don't tell the people ahead of time, but I was planning on taking four little boys, ages 8, 6, 4, and 1, on this adventure and knew that they might not be especially discreet and I didn't want their fun to be spoiled by getting caught.  Scott was gracious enough to let us come and "egg" his house and he did as he promised and ignored any sounds, camera flashes, etc.  : )  We also got to go to Nancy's house and "egg" her.  The boys LOVED it and were SO excited that they didn't get caught!  So, big thanks to Nancy and Scott for making this a success  : )

Here are some pictures of the boys on our big adventure:

 Joey and Cy at Scott's house

 Cy at Scott's house

 Cy was very meticulous in arranging the eggs at Nancy's house.

 Cy and Joey at Nancy's house

The finished product!

It was a fun night for all of us!

Fancy Nancy!!!

March 16th was Nancy's birthday, so naturally, we had to party it up!  We ended up having to wait a couple of days to do it, but on the 18th, we got together and celebrated!  Since Nancy is Fancy, we decided to have a Fancy Nancy themed party.  We had "fancy" snacks like Ring Pops, Laffy Taffy, and raspberry, Sprite, and sherbet punch served in champagne flutes!  After dinner, we all got a little fancy and dove into a bucket of props and costumes and did a photo shoot!  This was one of those times that made me especially grateful that my family is crazy : )  Without hesitation, we all jumped into crazy wigs and outfits.  Here are some pictures from our shoot:

 David, Melissa, Joey, Aaron, Cy, and Jonathan

 Anthony and Claudia

 Me, Mom, Melissa

 Nancy and Jacob

 Nancy, Claudia, and Creepy PhotoBomber...oh, I mean David  ; )

After our photo shoot, we had cake and ice cream!  I found the idea for this cake on Pinterest and it was a huge hit!  It was funny to watch people when they realized that it was actually a cake and not just a barrel of candy.  The one on Pinterest has a bunch of different colored M&Ms, but Nancy's favorite color is green, so I decided to use a bag of mint M&Ms that were just different shades of green!  I was happy with how it turned out!

 Here's my beautiful sister blowing out her candles!  : )

Happy Birthday, Nancy!!!  <3 <3 <3